Police believe boyfriend killed girlfriend, turned gun on self

Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police believe they have some answers in a homicide and attempted suicide that happened late Tuesday night.

A young woman was shot in her bed and police believe that her boyfriend was the killer, and then decided to turn the gun on himself.

Jessica Nowell, 24, was found dead in her bed in her apartment in the 400 block of W. Montgomery Cross Road. Her boyfriend, Justin Baldwin, 24, was found by Islands Precinct Officers in the first block of N. Parkwood Street suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Friends of Nowell, an Air Force reservist and recent Savannah State University graduate, said she and her boyfriend had lived together for more than three years.

Those bags are still in the front seat of her car. Friends and neighbors say they can't wrap their minds around the fact that Nowell is gone.

"You never see them fight. You never see them argue," said Brittany Green. "You just wouldn't think that they would be gone."

Green lives downstairs from the couple and was close to both Nowell and Baldwin.

"You never hear anything from their apartment," she said.

Neighbors say they never saw the couple fight, but according to a police report, Baldwin's sister told detectives Baldwin had an affair and a child with another woman.

Green saw Nowell and Baldwin 10 minutes before the couple's roommate came home and found her dead in their bed.

Police believe Baldwin shot his girlfriend, then drove to a relative's house on Savannah's east side and shot himself.

Baldwin is in serious condition at Memorial University Medical Center.